


Circuit Break

by OneSkyOneDestiny127



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Alternate Universe, Husbands, M/M, alternate universe set inside the actual game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 15:16:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6663814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneSkyOneDestiny127/pseuds/OneSkyOneDestiny127
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Happiness was meant for the good ones. Happiness was for the ones that deserved it. Maybe, after so many tries, it was the worlds chance to finally show him happiness just wasn't meant for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Circuit Break

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: some information may be wrong (haven't finished the games just yet).
> 
> Some things were left sorta vague for a reason - make it up with your imagination!

_ It was just a broken wire.  _

His footsteps led him back and forth, a nervous hand running over his face, the clips of the mask giving him a distraction to mess around with. 

_ These things happen - he’ll be fine. Broken wires are easy to fix.  _

He cast worried glances towards the double doors that led back to an electronic-operation room, specifically designed for those with the ECHO transplants and any cybernetic problems.

_ Broken wires. Broken wires. Broken wires. They happen all the time, right? If they didn’t they wouldn’t have this damn place. _

He took a seat near the doors, foot tapping, hands clenched together tightly as he went from leaning back to leaning forward then leaning back again, repeating the process over and over until he stood and paced once more. This wasn’t usual for him. Hospitals. Caring about people  _ in  _ the hospital.

_ Why did it happen then? What made it snap? _

Jack was chewing his bottom lip, eyes never once leaving the double doors, trying to see when a doctor was coming so that he could be prepared to jump on them with a thousand questions.

_ Was it the strain? Sitting? Not doing anything? What? _

Jack leaned against the wall, the feeling of anger progressively getting stronger the longer he waited outside. He could feel the nurse's eyes on him and he looked towards her, meeting her gaze as he growled, “Got something you want to say, sweet cheeks? Maybe want to take your phone out and snap a few pictures of me? Let me tell you something pumpkin, that’s how you get yourself a new pair of eyes.” The girl instantly turned her head down in fear from Jack’s threat, and he resumed his anxious pacing. 

He was silent for a while, letting another 15 minutes pass by before he went over to the nurse’s station and leaned against it. He was unable to muster up a smile, so instead he glared at her like she was the lowest on the food chain in a wide variety of insects. “Want to tell me how much longer it’s going to take to work on Rhys or should I just assume you know nothing because of that stupid, ‘I was the pretty girl in high school’ look you got going on?” Jack insulted her with ease. When she said nothing, only scooted back in her chair, he walked around and entered the nurse’s station, shoving her chair further from the computer.

“Guess I gotta do everything myself.” Jack grumbled, typing in the information he needed. Thankfully, the computers on Hyperion and the hospitals here were updated by the minute, which led to him finding the information that Rhys had been put into a room more than an hour ago. Jack smacked the keyboard off the desk and yelled, “Jesus, does no one in this hospital realize that I will will take them out back, shoot them in the kneecaps, then proceed to pummel them in the face until death if I am not updated and told what is going in with the person I’m here for? Does anyone want to fucking ** _test_** **_me_**?” He glanced at the room number and shook his head, snarling at the nurse who yelped in surprise and fear. “Next time, don’t be an information whore.” Jack snapped at her, about to walk away from the desk before he added, “Also, you should know, if you’re the pretty girl in highschool, you’re gonna be one fugly adult. Be prepared for those wrinkles, honey, they’re going to hit you hard.”

Jack finally stalked away from the nurse’s station and headed to the back rooms, disregarding the “Family Only” signs that hung on every door. He’d do whatever the hell he wanted. The halls were drafty and cold, almost as if they were warding off visitors with the nipping of the air conditioner. Cheesy paintings hung up on the walls at random intervals, the cat hanging on the branch, ridiculous ones that said to keep waiting in a cartoonish fashion. Couches were lining the walls that looked incredibly uncomfortable, and the further Jack walked through this hospital, the more he hated it. That was completely disregarding the strange scent that lingered in the air in the hallways - it was a mixture of alcohol and the faint smell of burnt oil. Hyperion was supposed to show class and superiority - what the hell are these in the hospital wards?

He rounded a corner and ran straight into the doctor that was responsible for Rhys, a doctor he’d known for far too long, the only one he’d trust to work on Rhys. The man, Dakota, blinked to gather his thoughts for a second, winded by Jack’s body, “A-ah, Jack, I was just about to retrieve you. The wiring in Rhys’s brain has since been fixed, but there were a few… concerns.” 

“And? Oh, hell, don’t make me play the goddamn guessing game because I swear,” Jack held up a hand and laughed, a clear sign that he was pissed and feeling rather murderous, the open handed palm clenching a moment later, “I will have no problem shoving a gun in your mouth and pulling the trigger. Tell me what’s wrong with  _ my _ husband and things will be just bright and dandy for your future, okay, doc?”

Dakota cleared his throat, giving a brief nod as he looked over Rhys’s chart to make sure he said the right thing. “Y-yes, Jack. Rhys’s wiring seemed to not only break, which is something rather uncommon but easily fixed, but they seemed to send out multiple wrong signals to the wrong places, which fried circuits in his brain and affected his cybernetics. The temporal lobe and the frontal lobe were the most damaged in this circuit failure and frying, and we made sure to replace what was broken, but there may be some serious side effects.” 

Jack stared at the doctor blankly, processing the information. “What types of side effects? Don’t hold information back like I’m a child who can’t rip the bandaid off.”

“I’m talking about memory loss, emotional output may seem different, his personality may be different. He may not be able to problem solve as easily as he did before, or remember certain aspects of himself.” Dakota explained, knowing that this would most likely tip Jack over the edge.

“So, you’re saying that he could be a completely different person now?” Jack asked, receiving a slow nod as confirmation. He stood still for a moment before he shoved Dakota against the wall, pressing his forearm into his neck. When he was pissed, he had to attack the nearest living thing, and that just so happened to be the unfortunate doctor. “For your sake, you better hope he’s not completely different. I don’t want to know what would happen to Hyperion and Pandora  _ again _ if I didn’t have Rhys.”

Dakota spluttered and wheezed, attempting to escape, but Jack lowered his arm and turned heel, letting the doctor fall to the ground in a fit of coughs. Jack walked briskly towards the room that Rhys was being held in and stepped in quietly, not wanting to wake Rhys up, his hand fixing his hair as it got slightly out of place from attacking the doctor. There was nothing unusual about Rhys at first glance - same sleeping face, brunette hair mussed yet adorable all the same, body relaxed, breathing gently…

_ There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s fine. _

Jack breathed a soft sigh of relief, sitting down in the chair next to the bed. Waking up after being worked on always took a while, but Jack was fine with waiting. So long as no nurses came in, that is. He didn’t think he could handle another life without snapping and killing them. He’d been good the past few years of keeping his violent side in check, but it was obvious that Rhys was the barricade between his vicious nature and the outside world. Jack twiddled his thumbs and looked around the room repeatedly, the stale hospital smell hitting his nose in an odd way now that he was in one of the rooms, his mind idly thinking about how he would give Rhys a hard time for having this little issue.

They weren’t doing anything strenuous at the time. They were sitting down, with Rhys explaining how this whole “adoption” thing worked to Jack. Jack understood it, but he was getting frustrated with all the small details that came along with it ( _ “Look you just need to sign here,” “I already signed like five thousand times, what more could they want?” “They just want proof that-” “Proof that I’m not changing my signature any time soon? God,”). _ They were planning on adopting the baby around this time, or an unborn one, so that they could have her by the time next spring rolled around. Rhys said that wait times were usually more than the average pregnancy, but since it was Handsome Jack adopting, they weren’t going to make him wait any longer than he had to. 

When they were discussing names, Rhys agreed to name her Angel, after Jack’s daughter. Jack still didn’t forgive himself for what he did to her. Even if it was a different daughter, he was going to try his damndest to treat her right, and with Rhys’s help, things would go smoothly. Rhys would keep him from repeating the same mistake - the one that still haunted his dreams. Sure, it’d be impossible to repeat the same mistake, but it was nice to know that he wouldn’t have to fear it. 

Jack sighed and leaned back against the chair, looking up at the ceiling, his foot tapping once again as he waited for Rhys to wake up. He spaced out at some point while he was counting the numerous dots on the ceiling - or maybe it was when he was noticing all the strange smells in the hospital -, and he was snapped back into alertness when he heard Rhys emit a soft groan. He whipped his head down to look towards Rhys again, accompanied by a sharp pain in his neck. Jack rubbed the kink in his neck while his eyes remained on the stirring brunette, the stiff posture that accompanied him as he sat up straight and the gentle eye rub to his eyes that opened to reveal the familiar brown and blue. 

“Hey, Rhys,” Jack said, leaning slightly forward so he could get a good look at Rhys’s features to see if anything was off. “Feeling better now?”

Rhys stared at him for a moment, slowly nodding. “Uh… yeah, I guess. My head kinda hurts but I’m fine.” Rhys spoke with a certain hesitation, almost as if he were unsure if his answer was right or wrong. 

“That’s good. Good, good, good. I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Jack said, running a hand through his hair to get it back into place. He stood and tucked Rhys’s hair back into place, “Have any idea what happened? Freaked me out back there, you were buzzing and making these weird ass noises.” 

Rhys leaned away when Jack touched him, though Jack didn’t seem to notice. “No… I don’t. Do you? Why am I even here…?” Rhys asked, his eyes glancing around the room he was in.

“What do you mean? You’re here because some circuits or something malfunctioned, I don’t really remember what that dick doctor said,” Jack explained, sitting back down when he noticed that Rhys wasn’t as pumped to be awake. Understandable. “Your ECHO eye was changing like four different colors and your arm was out of control, bringing up random things on your hand.” Jack relayed the memory, remembering how one minute they were fine and the next Rhys seemed to be having a sort of internal attack. His eye went from blue to red to yellow to purple and to green in flashes and bursts, and his hand was pulling up these strange images. Jack didn’t get a good look at them though. He was too busy trying to get Rhys to calm down. 

Rhys gave a tentative nod in response, his gaze turning to his right arm as he began to experimentally stretch his fingers. “They don’t hurt, do they? If that idiot doctor didn’t fix it all then I’m going to kill him.” Jack said, knowing full well that if the doctor had intentionally let Rhys’s circuits go unfixed, he’d be dead within seconds.

“W-whoa, that seems a bit harsh. They don’t hurt, just… looking.” Rhys said, his eyes slightly wide as he looked towards Jack. The expression on his face was… foreign to Jack, and it took up until that moment that he realized something was off. 

Jack leaned forward and looked into Rhys’s eyes, his own narrowing and his lips pursed, taking a brief pause to see if anything substantial looked different. “Hey, turn on your ECHO and scan something in here, like me.” Jack ordered, wanting to see if Rhys was able to turn the ECHO on. If he wasn’t, that meant something was wrong. It wasn’t very often people with the ECHO transplants just forgot how to use it.

“Uh…” Rhys seemed to be wracking his brain for the information that Jack seeked, how to use the ECHO, and when nothing happened after several seconds, Jack could feel his heart sink. Maybe Rhys had just forgotten about the ECHO, maybe it was just a few things gone, maybe it was something as silly as forgetting how to use his eye. Jack was sure that Rhys was fine otherwise. He had to be. Jack didn’t want to think about what he’d do if Rhys wasn’t Rhys. 

Jack looked at Rhys with a smile, mentally preparing himself for whatever answer would come to his question before he asked it. “Do you know who I am?”

Rhys looked between Jack’s eyes, his eyebrows scrunching together every now and then, mouth twitching before it opened and shut. He took a minutes thought before he slowly shook his head. “No… should I?” Rhys questioned, his eyes still looking over Jack’s face.

Jack froze for a moment before he stood and laughed, clapping Rhys on the shoulder as he grinned. “Whaddya mean ‘should you?’ Rhys, don’t act stupid.” Jack teased, though he noticed the way Rhys flinched when he touched his shoulder. “You’re not serious, are you? This is one messed up game you’re playing, man.” 

“I am… I really don’t know who you are and I’m not playing a game.” Rhys whispered, fear sprouting up in his eyes. Fear… fear Jack had never seen in those eyes. Well, maybe once or twice, but fear that he hadn’t seen in so many years. “I honestly don’t. Should I know who you are? Are you family or a friend or…?”   


Jack’s smile fell from his face slowly, not believing what he was hearing. “C-c’mon Rhys, Rhysie, cupcake, pumpkin, kiddo, baby!” Jack was trying to be positive about this, listing off the numerous nicknames he used on Rhys, hoping that Rhys was kidding around. “You really don’t remember me? What about Vaughn? Or Fiona? Sasha?” Jack offered up other names, seeing if anything rung a bell in Rhys’s mind. 

A light bulb struck in Rhys’s eyes, and he pointed at Jack, “Vaughn. I know a Vaughn. Short guy with glasses… I know Vaughn. I think. Fiona and Sasha… they sound familiar. One… wears a hat. Everything seems so fuzzy in my head...” Rhys said after thinking for a moment, his bionic hand pressing into his temple where his fingers slid between his locks. That only put a heavier weight on Jack’s heart, his face falling more. 

“Okay, now what about Jack? Does Jack ring a bell?” Jack was hoping, hoping so damn much, that Rhys would hit that light bulb again with his name, or break out laughing and say that it was all a joke. One sick, twisted joke, but a joke nonetheless.

Rhys, once again, began thinking, but he shook his head. “No. I don’t know a Jack.” 

Jack looked down at Rhys with an increasingly alarmed stare. Rhys really had no memory of him. None. There was nothing striking his interest, nothing jumping out in his mind about Jack. “Stop fooling around.” Jack was being stern now, his heart thumping hard in his chest. “This really isn’t funny, Rhys. You do know me. We’re married. Hell, I was inside your head for a good few months when we first met. You used to screw with me by scanning  _ mushrooms _ and it was the most annoying thing. I gave you that little screaming robot, Dumpy.” Jack said, now moving to press his hands into the mattress, his body leaning down as he began to list a few crucial memories off. Instantly, he saw the way Rhys leaned away from him, the obvious shock and fear rising in his unfamiliar eyes. 

“I-I really don’t know who you are. Please get away from me, you’re freaking me out.” Rhys started, swallowing thickly. 

Jack laughed once more, moving a hand to touch Rhys’s hip, his head leaning in further, “Rhys, you can’t come home like this, acting like you don’t remember me.”

As soon as Jack was an inch away from Rhys’s lips, he felt a sharp, backhanded smack from Rhys that sent him stumbling slightly back. He put a hand to his cheek, the stinging sensation and the imprint on his cheek from the bionic hand mixed with the now clear fear in Rhys’s eyes made the pain a thousand times worse. Jack lost his husband. He lost him… over what? Over some fucking malfunction? Over some  _ random _ malfunction? 

Those eyes he had grown to love were completely fear stricken, and this wasn’t the fear that came with being in a relationship; the kind that was faked and playful like those ridiculous tickle fights. This frightened gaze Jack was receiving was one that he’d see every time before he killed someone, the one that pleaded, “Don’t hurt me,” or “I won’t do it again,” and… it killed him to see Rhys with that look in his eyes. Jack could barely breathe with that gaze. 

“Rhys… I-”

“Don’t touch me! Don’t come near me!” Rhys’s voice grew higher as he yelled, his breathing picking up as he tried to scramble backwards. His attempt at fleeing was cut short as all he managed to do was fall out of the uncomfortable hospital bed, banging his head onto the wall. “I don’t know who you are and I don’t have a husband - leave me alone. Please!” Rhys stood as fast as he could, his hand pressing into the pain that was spreading out over his skull.

Jack couldn’t say anything. He was usually so quick to counter things like this, tell people they were wrong, prove them wrong; but right now, all he felt was the intense pain coursing through his body. His head felt heavy and hot, the pressure increasing in his chest until it felt like it was caving in, his lungs were getting less room to expand and he tried to keep his breathing in check but it was getting harder to do that. Jack’s mind could barely form a sentence. Rhys had been frightened enough by him to actually hit him. Even when he was a hologram in Rhys’s head Rhys never found it in him to hit him, to strike at the hologram. When they first met, Rhys could’ve taken the opportunity to smack him, or try to, but Rhys didn’t. 

But now… Rhys was scared of him. Genuinely. 

Jack took a step back as he heard Dakota step inside, and he glared at him as he walked by. “Tell your nurses to give Vaughn a call.” Jack ordered, his voice thick with anger and heartache. He needed to leave before he lashed out on someone else, quite possibly the infants in the maternity ward.

The doctor attempted to stop Jack, trying to ask what had happened, but when Jack whipped around and glared at him, the doctor immediately backed off. Being here was sickening him the longer he was in there, so Jack made quick haste to leave the ward as fast as he could without sprinting. He stayed relatively “relaxed” the length of the way home, keeping his face stone cold and his gaze blank as he tried not to think. This calm demeanor was broken as soon as he arrived home, though.

Jack shut the front door slowly behind him, the breath he didn’t realize he was holding being let out with the soft, resounding  _ click _ of the door. He stood still and leaned against the door for a moment, his gaze downcast, mind as blank as before. Jack couldn’t find the strength to think yet, but when his eyes settled on a pair of Rhys’s weirdly pointed shoes, something in him snapped. 

He stood up straight, a new fire burning in him. “What the fuck happened…” For Jack to swear on that extent was something he never did. “I don’t get it - he remembers fucking  _ Vaughn _ and  _ Fiona  _ and  _ Sasha  _ but not me? Why not me? What the fuck  _ happened _ ?” Jack’s voice grew steadily louder, the fury rising in him being something he hadn’t felt in so many years. He began to walk around the house, knocking breakables off the counters, causing them to shatter and leave glass everywhere. He laughed as he did so, the laughter being pain driven the more he broke - tables, vases, plates and dishes, he took his gun out to shoot the TV a few times, flipped the couches and destroyed the windows by throwing larger items out the thick glass. He subconsciously avoided all of Rhys’s things, though.  

Jack cackled and roared with laughter, voice broken and cracking, his psychotic behavior a simple cover up for how much he was breaking inside and it felt like nothing had changed. The pain drove his madness, leaving him a panting, hurting mess. There was a poison in his body that was hiding itself, waiting for the moment to take hold again, and he could feel the familiarity of it. It was almost like quiet whispers in his head urged him on, begged him to continue destroying the house, telling him that Rhys was gone and nothing was stopping him from killing every single bandit and damned Vault Hunter on Pandora anymore. It was taking hold of his mind with thick claws of hate once more, pleading him to wage war, command the people that still feared him for who he was. There was so much opportunity and now, a second chance. 

He could feel the blood running down his hand and the shakiness in his bones when he had decimated the last room. He rose a hand and rubbed it over his forehead, the welcoming feeling of hot liquid dripping down his cheeks to collect at his jaw and slip off onto his shirt forced him to calm slightly. He breathed heavily, the occasional tremor in his bones making him feel a hundred times weaker. Jack couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this ruined, but with the voices telling him what he could do now, he realized that the weak feeling definitely wouldn’t last long. He had been yelling throughout his tirade, shouting questions,  _ ”Why the fuck did this happen to me?” _ or,  _ ”Why did this happen to Rhys? Why this was happening at all, what the fuck caused it?” _ Jack received no answer, and that only proved to piss him off more. He was trying to change, to go this “nice” route that Rhys had so desired for him - why was he being screwed this way?

He stood in the massive amount of ruined items, glass shards everywhere, furniture overturned or broken on the ground, breathing heavily still. This feeling was one that he had staved off the past few years after returning, this bloodthirsty hunger that was always there but tameable. His reason for keeping that purely evil side of him in check was because of Rhys, and if Rhys didn’t remember him… there goes his reason to keep things civil. That thick poison was quick to work its way back into his bloodstream, tainting his core all over again. 

After collecting his thoughts, he wandered to where he had left his phone in the kitchen, having to kick things out of his way to find it. He ignored the droplets of blood that dripped onto his phone as he went to pick the device up, doing a shitty job of wiping it off with his sleeve as he spoke into it. “Call that little bastard, what was his name? Eh, I don’t know, the janitor. The same one I used to smack around for fun.” Jack looked around at the damage he had brought upon the house, a smirk spreading across his lips. 

This was just the beginning. 

“H-hello, Jack, sir.” The janitors squeaky  voice spoke hesitantly on the other end of the line, the nervousness making Jack empowered.

“Oh, I remember you now! Claptrap 2000, since those shitiots had an annoying voice too,” Jack laughed and walked through the house, purposely stepping on the broken shards so that they splintered and made more of a mess. “Anyway, get your ass up here and clean my house. Replace anything I broke, which is just about everything. I want it done by the time I get back home or you’ll end up like some of these glass pieces but maybe a little more spread apart - okay? Okay, good. Ciao.” Jack hung up after that, only then noticing that there was a message from an unknown number. He clicked it open and narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering what the text meant.    


_ It’s good to have you back, Jack. Wouldn’t be fun without it being you.  _

He ignored the message and deleted it, walking out of the house afterwards as he headed to his office. There were things he needed to do and he was sure that once he had all the controls in front of him, it’d be easy to know what to start with.

* * *

 

The next few days consisted of careful plotting. His plan was to settle that life threatening fear back into the employee's hearts, knowing full well that they had abandoned that terror they used to have when walking through Hyperion. 

Jack didn’t stay home all that much anymore - going home to an empty house without Rhys, sleeping alone, cooking for himself, and just sitting in silence was too much for him -, and he kept Vaughn close when he was at work. Vaughn was his only connection to Rhys at this point, since Rhys decided to move in with Vaughn after he was released from the hospital. Lucky for Vaughn, since Jack saw him so valuable, he was one of the very few lucky ones that didn’t get a knife thrown at them for just being there.

Through Vaughn, Jack was able to hear that Rhys had moved his things out of the house they shared and, with persuasion (through threats), Vaughn told Jack that the younger brunette stopped wearing his wedding band. Jack hadn’t said anything when Vaughn relayed the information, and instead he called in one of the newer employees and killed her after belittling her. It was a routine that Jack did when he was alive before Rhys, where he’d take his anger and aggression out on the new employees. It terrified the other workers to no end, but Jack was fine with it. 

Jack knew there was something to blame for Rhys’s malfunctioning. There had to have been, and he had people working on it to find the answer. The idiots working in the labs were useless, though, and many of them didn’t know what had caused it. If it wasn’t already obvious, those people who gave up were killed off and replaced instantly. If he could figure out what happened with Rhys, they could fix him. But, as a precaution, he had ordered the people in the artillery district to begin producing weapons. Why? He figured he should be over prepared than underprepared. And he felt like it (“I’ll do whatever I want. If I want more weapons, I want more weapons, and I don’t think you want to know what happens if I don’t get what I want,” as Jack explained to the people in the artillery district). 

Jack was just about to head out and make a round of a few of the districts to see who he could torment when another message was sent to his computer. He debated actually looking at it but when the subject line read, “Rhys,” he opened the message immediately. 

_ While it may have seemed that we vanished, we didn’t. Ever since you disappeared we’ve been hard at work to rebuild what you destroyed, and joining with our ally has made rebuilding easy. Now that you’re back to your usual self, I think it’s time we reveal who we are and what exactly is wrong with your boy toy.  _

_ DAHL and us, ATLAS, have been working hard on overthrowing you, killing you once and for all. There had been rumors that someone on Pandora a few years back was walking around with you in their head, and that when he returned to Hyperion, there’d be a new body waiting to bring Handsome Jack back. We couldn’t allow something as dangerous as you get away with life after you had already died. While the few ATLAS members remained hidden and far apart, there was enough of us to band together again and concoct something. That was, until DAHL approached us and asked to join forces.  _

_ The plan we had before DAHL joined was going to be a minor one, what with our limited resources and trying to stay on the down low. But, with DAHL working with us, we were able to rebuild completely and start this new little project we so lovingly called:  _ The Boy Toy Project.  _ Or, more formally,  _ Destroy Rhys.  _ After being shoved in his head and receiving a new body, there was more word that Handsome Jack had taken a new lover. We thought it was going to be a woman, some slut like your previous ones, but it was a man. And, you should’ve seen the shock on our faces, that man seemed to somehow love you back. A murderous machine with the lack of sympathy and morals had found someone to tame his wild side and actually keep him somewhat civil. But, here’s the thing Jack. We can’t risk having you snap and lash out later when we’re unprepared. Along with this project that we worked so tirelessly on, we made sure to build weapons that could counter your Hyperion ones, and with DAHL working alongside us, I think you’ll find it hard to pummel us as you did before.  _

_ That malfunction your beloved Rhys had was because of us. What better way to make this an interesting fight then to damage the only one who actually gives a damn about you? _

_ I won’t go into details of how we did it or what exactly it is that we did, but just know - Rhys won’t come back until we say so. And what we say is for you to either fight back now and turn yourself in later, or turn yourself into us now. Whatever you choose, we’re willing to go along with it.  _

_ This has been a wonderful conversation, Jack. We look forward to your answer.  _

_ -ATLAS and DAHL _

 

Jack read the contents of the message, his blood boiling more and more as he read what had happened. His hands clenched into white knuckled fists, jaw tight, eyes open with fire burning in them. ATLAS and DAHL thought they could join forces and take him down? Like hell they would! Hyperion was superior - so much more superior than the weaklings of ATLAS and DAHL. If they wanted a fight with Handsome Jack, they were going to get one. 

Jack cracked his knuckles and kicked his feet up on his desk, triggering the intercom with a click of the button. “Employees of Hyper- wow, that’s way too nice. Insubordinate freaks of Hyperion: ATLAS has resurfaced on Pandora and has joined forces with DAHL. The last thing we -  _ I -  _  want is for Hyperion to be overthrown because of some weakling, piss for brains alliance made up of two distraught, disgruntled, and sore loser companies that think they’re superior! Whatever you losers were doing before, stop it, and get to work on manufacturing weapons. ATLAS and DAHL want a war, and they’re going to get one. Handsome Jack, out.” Jack finished his speech and hung up, leaning back into his chair. 

They thought that they could get away with screwing Rhys’s circuitry. Had it been anyone else, Jack wouldn’t have given a damn, but they knew where to hit him to get him to crack. He hated that, but the damage was already inflicted. Now was the time for action, to break ATLAS all over again. Picking a fight with Handsome Jack was idiotic all in itself.

“Oh! Almost forgot something.” Jack smirked and tapped into the intercoms that still were strewn about Pandora, the ones that were used to widely threaten the whole planet of Pandora. “What’s up, Pandorians? Handsome Jack here with a little message for all you bandits and psychos and normal people who just happened to be on the wrong planet at the wrong time. I thought things were going to be simpler this time around, since I wasn’t really feelin’ the whole ‘Let me take over Pandora and get rid of the scum, worthless, idiotic people that run around freely down there without an inkling of thought’ attitude until just now. Noooow, I’m here to warn - actually, tell - all of you degenerate ‘people’ that things will pick up right where they left off. If I find another Warrior, then it’ll be fantastic. Destroy my enemies and make the world I want on Pandora a reality? Two bitches with one stone!” Jack laughed, knowing full well that the Warrior from before was killed, but he could find a better, stronger one if he had to. Why not search for another Vault? “Last I checked there weren’t many Vault Hunters daring to do anything anymore so I expect less resistance from them this time around. Just remember Pandora: your favorite pal Handsome Jack is back, and I still don’t tolerate any of you.” 

Jack turned the intercom off and leaned further back into his chair, tapping the chair handles with a wicked smirk resting on his face. It’d been so long since he was able to do these things and it felt great to do them. So. Damn.  _ Amazing _ .

Jack let out a heavy sigh and stood, heading out of the office now that things were under way in Hyperion. At least there was something to do to keep his mind off the hiccup with Rhys, and enacting revenge was the best way to clear his mind. He’d force ATLAS and DAHL to surrender and afterwards, he’d force them to repair what they broke in Rhys. If they were lying about the ability to fix Rhys, than… the future would look very bleak. 

He stepped out of his office and watched as people were already hard at work, running back and forth from district to district to go with Jack’s new orders. He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, the familiar smirk on his lips making him forget the problems at hand. Now was a new day, and things were just getting heated up.

ATLAS and DAHL better be prepared for the storm that’s heading their way.

* * *

 

Rhys vaguely remembered everything about Hyperion. There were the different departments, the asshole people that littered the hallways, the cliques, the job he had… using the ECHO eye took him a couple days to remember how to use, but slowly he was getting into the swing of things. He returned to work once he was sure his mind was remembering the exact things he was supposed to do there, but it felt… somehow strange. There was always this weird inkling that something was off, and he had no idea what made it that way or how to stop it from being that way. 

The plus was that he remembered everything about Vaughn. Seeing Fiona and Sasha in Hyperion took an extra week to click in his brain of who they were and how close he was to them, but after that, things seemed relatively normal. 

Except when he was walking the halls and came across Jack. 

He saw Jack about three times every day, never in the same place, but it always started with an awkward meeting of eyes. They didn’t say anything to each other, but when Rhys averted his gaze, he could feel Jack’s stare boring into his head. It wasn’t an angry sensation that coursed through his body every time he felt that stare, it was a lonely one. It was like Jack was trying to convey his emotions without saying anything, and Rhys didn’t understand it. Rhys only tried to convince himself that whatever happened wasn’t his fault. 

The memories that Jack said were there before, the things that Vaughn explained to him about Jack being inside his head at first - none of it made sense. He had never once in his life met this Jack person, but from what everyone said, he was a terrifying monster, and Rhys was beginning to believe them. 

Every time he saw Jack though, those piercing green and blue eyes, there was some longing that he felt. There was a pull to Jack that he tried so hard to resist, but there were times where he debated actually going over to Jack. After hearing the things the older man said over the intercoms, the orders he had in place for the people on Pandora, he was… scared that Jack would lash out on him for not remembering. Now that Rhys knew what he was capable of, he didn’t want to find out his pain tolerance. 

Vaughn, Fiona, and Sasha all tried to tell him otherwise, though. All three of them - despite the two girls absolutely hating Jack at first - encouraged the relationship that supposedly was there. They explained that Jack had left his sadistic lifestyle behind in order to please Rhys’s wishes of a nicer path, one that didn’t contribute to the death count, and they said that Jack hadn’t broken the promise that he made to Rhys until that day with the malfunction.

Each time they sat him down and explained to him certain aspects of his and Jack’s relationship, he got more confused. Sure, every time he saw Jack, there were vague flashes of memories that appeared and disappeared in a second without giving him an opportunity to realize what he was seeing. They never stuck around for long, and because of that, he only grew more and more confused. 

Some days, the flashes of memories lasted a few seconds longer. His body would feel the reminiscing touches of hands tracing the contours of his arms and chest, the tingle of his lips from passionate kisses, the tender words that were whispered in the quiet of night; all of it would bring itself forward in his head before disappearing to the abyss it crawled out from. With all the words from his friends of his and Jack’s relationship, the lonely gazes, and the memories he had, Rhys wished that there was a way to bring back what used to be. But with the state he was in now, still very confused on the whole situation, going back to Jack would only be a dick move. There was no way that he could go back to Jack when he remembered very little of him, and the only thing he focused on at work anymore was how to get his memory back. 

For the next few weeks that the war was waging below on Pandora, Rhys avoided as many people as he could besides his close knit of friends. Jack was growing progressively harder to be around as he felt the different emotions from the older man. It wasn’t hard for him to notice the stealing glances he received when he was walking through one of the dark blue hallways, but his feet were quick to take him far away from wherever Jack was. 

After almost every encounter, there was another announcement from Jack, usually directed towards Pandora. 

Rhys was always trying hard to forget those announcements, since they always were so… malicious. If Rhys wasn’t at work, he was at Vaughn’s place. He was sitting in the spare room Vaughn had, wracking his brain for details, for memories, for any inkling of what was there that was now gone. He would sit in his room in the early hours of the morning, the moon casting the room in a soft, glowing grey, the dust particles in the air seeming to stand still as if time was stopped during the night. Rhys moved around the room, from sitting on the bed to lying down, to sprawled out on the ground or pacing, and he always seemed to land in the same position just a few hours before morning broke; sitting in the sole chair with his fingers gripping his brunette locks in a feeble attempt to force his brain to bring those memories back. There was something in him that missed Jack, he could feel it everywhere in Hyperion when he was working. 

The more nights he spent not sleeping, the more he felt guilty, the harder he tried at Hyperion to unlock that part of his brain that was suppressing these memories, the desperation raising in his body as more people were slaughtered on Pandora. He didn’t want bloodshed because of something his cybernetics did. 

When he received a message from someone on Pandora, he was shocked and skeptical. ATLAS had contacted him, the enemy that everyone spoke of. They explained that they could help bring his memories back and Rhys wanted to believe them. They were the only people that approached him and said they knew what to do - no one on Hyperion was able to fix whatever was broken in his cybernetics, and after so many weeks of the longing looks, the deep pain he felt when looking at Jack, and the lack of help from people on Hyperion, he was willing to listen to anything ATLAS had to say. 

The day he received the message, he told Vaughn, Fiona, and Sasha about it. All three of them instantly began to say that he shouldn’t trust them, telling him that what they were doing was a mere ploy to hurt him and Jack more. Their warnings made sense, and he decided to ignore what the message entailed, the details that they explained of how to get to where they were. Instead of blindly going down to the war stricken planet, he thought that talking to this person would be the first step. 

The conversations at first consisted of reliability and the proof that they could help, and his trust was slowly gaining in this ATLAS corporation when he received videos and names from the people working there. They seemed… friendly. They were willing to help him gain his memory back, but something seemed off about it. They were fighting Hyperion at the moment. Why would they be reaching out to help him? 

_ Who are you? Why would you want to help me?  _

**_That’s easy, Rhys. We know the difference from a good man versus a bad one._ **

_ Plenty of people have plenty of problems, I don’t see why a company like yours would choose me to help. _

**_There are things that we owe you._ **

_ Like what? _

**_That’s a secret. You can’t know the truth until you come here to let us fix what’s broken._ **

He only spoke to the people at ATLAS for a couple weeks, keeping in close contact with them despite the cryptic messages he got as answers, slowly letting the connection wither and die. They were against Hyperion, helpful or not. They were against Jack, whether they had the answer to his problem or not. He couldn’t turn on Hyperion, on Jack. Even if he didn’t remember the Jack he had, he couldn’t accept help from the people who clearly wanted Jack dead. 

The day he stopped speaking to ATLAS was the night he got a good night’s sleep in the comfortable bed that he had avoided for so many weeks. He just wished he had woken up where he fell asleep.

* * *

 

“I figured you imbeciles should know the latest updates on our little battle with ATLAS and DAHL. As expected, Hyperion is winning. With a leader as fearless as me, of course we’re winning!” Jack spoke into the intercom on Hyperion, having just gotten back from a brief trip down to Pandora to see how things were going in some of the bandit heavy fields (and also kill a few of the ugly bitches himself for fun). “I know that you were all expecting a quick battle but those two companies seem to think that their joint forces are going to stop Hyperion from kicking asses. Sadly for them, everyone licks my boots and pleads for mercy, especially them.” Jack grinned widely and twirled a gun in his hand, “Anyhow, there’s a few-” Jack was cut off as his door was thrown open, not skipping a beat as he held the gun out and cocked it. When his eyes landed on Vaughn, he shut the intercom down and set the gun on the desk, eyes boring into the breathless accountant. 

“I don’t really appreciate you barging into my office like that.” Jack growled. Even if Vaughn was important to his information on Rhys, that didn’t give the scrawny man any special privileges. 

Vaughn quickly apologized, the sweat on his brow giving away the nervousness in his posture and voice. “I-I’m sorry, I really am, but this is important. I figured that the person who should know is you, since you’d want to handle it, but Rhys walked out last night and some people in the docking bay said they saw him take one of the pods down to Pandora.” Vaughn explained as fast as he could, the look on Jack’s face making him want to collapse. “They said that he looked weird when he was going down there. His ECHO eye was red and he didn’t seem like himself.”

Jack stared at Vaughn for a solid minute without breathing. He stared until Vaughn was switching between leaning on his left and right foot, and he rose a moment later. “I’ll handle this.” Jack spoke in a soft tone. He pocketed his guns and began to head down to the loading docks, not wasting another moment on Hyperion as he headed back down to Pandora. As soon as he landed, the car that he had ordered roaring to life after the crash, a message appeared on the system. 

_ You know where to find us, Jack. I’d hurry if I were you.  _

Jack grit his teeth at the message and slammed his hand into the steering wheel. They were using Rhys to lure him out - they were using someone he cared for so deeply to bring him down and it was working. It was working so well and he absolutely hated it. 

Coordinates were uploaded into the car a moment later, courtesy of ATLAS, and he drove at very dangerous speeds to get to the location as quickly as possible. The blurred scenery around him wasn’t registering in his brain. All that mattered was getting to ATLAS before anything happened to Rhys. ATLAS had moved their base from Old Haven to a spot in the Dead Sands, nearing the Frozen Wastes but staying far enough away from it to avoid the nipping cold. The building he was looking for was hidden in an outcrop, blending into the sandy surroundings with its beige color. 

He stopped the car with a screech outside the facility, climbing out with a challenging threat, “Alright, ATLAS, I’m here. How about we do this the easiest way possible, which is to let Rhys go after fixing his cybernetics, then I stop my attacks and everything goes back to peaceful, dandy, fun bright times?” Jack walked forward, the crunch of sand beneath his boots sounding louder than his voice. He spread his arms out wide, almost like he was flashing a giant, “Come get me!” on his face in bright neon letters. “If you’re all going to hide in your little facility like a bunch of goddamned cowards too afraid to face their angry father, then bring Rhys out at least!” 

Nothing moved in the facility. No doors were opened, no sounds were blaring, there was only the wind blowing over the sand, churning it on the bright yellow, the vast sea of gold seeming to raise heat from the distant sun. He scoffed and walked straight into the building afterwards, not bothering on pulling out his gun. He’d be outmatched anyway. 

The first thing that hit him was the cool, ventilated air billowing near the entrance. It ruffled his hair, his lip twitching in disgust. The slate grey walls were trimmed with an even darker grey, the trim matching the dark glossy floors. His shoes clicked on the hard flooring, there being no noise besides his shoes as he walked into the main lobby. It was large and the ceiling stood high above him, the distant sounds of air conditioners working tirelessly to keep the place cool in the hot desert they were in. He tsked and laughed again, this time pulling out a gun so he could shoot it into the air.

“I mean, am I the only one here? I don’t think my car just  _ knew  _ where the ATLAS building was. If that was the case, I would’ve been down here way before now!” Jack called out, waiting for a response. Again, he was met with silence and he growled, “Alright, dickbags. Let’s get your little bastard asses out here and tell me what the hell you did with the person I deemed mine!” 

This time, there was a response. Footsteps drawing closer, their heels clicking into the floors as they approached, and a moment later, he was barricaded in the lobby. “Wow, is this the best you can do? You know it’s no fun to prolong a death if the person is trapped, right? At least with an open field you would have the choice of gunning me down, running me over, sicking skags on me, letting loose… anything, really. Make it entertaining for yourselves once in awhile! Oh, duh, sorry. I totally forgot that you lot wouldn’t be able to handle something as serious as killing a moving target. Gotta make it easy for the wittle babies to murder.” Jack grinned, watching the people shift from one foot to the other in an uncomfortable manner.

Jack went to speak again, but was stopped when he saw the familiar head of brunette locks looking down at the ground, legs limp. Two men were dragging him by the arms and they propped him up against the nearest wall, but they trained their guns on Jack instantly. They knew better than to not do that. If they hadn’t Jack would’ve ruined the whole damn place right there. “What the fuck did you do to him?” Jack barked out instantly, his eyes trailing over Rhys’s body. He saw no injuries, but that didn’t mean shit when ATLAS had been the one to harm Rhys’s cybernetics.

“Nothing.” Jack’s gaze was torn from Rhys to the direction of the voice. A man walked out from the crowd, his hands tucked properly behind his back. “We don’t hurt innocents, Jack.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, am I supposed to just know everyone’s names? Did I miss the memo that went out or something? Everyone seems to know who I am but for the life of me, I can’t place a name to your ugly mug.” Jack growled, “Though, everyone knows me. It’s a privilege to know who I am.” Jack answered himself, his eyes flickering from Rhys to the man whom he assumed was the one leading this little operation to overthrow him.

“My name is Marodellus,” Marodellus spoke, a glare entering his features. “I was one of the last few surviving ATLAS members after your little temper tantrum.”

“Temper tantrum? Temper-” Jack held his gut as he laughed, waving his hand as he keeled slightly over, “Oh, that’s the best one I’ve heard. I’ve heard mental break, sadist, psychopath, meltdown - but never once have I heard temper tantrum. Wow, I must be one bad child to receive the temper tantrum title!” Jack howled, his laughter at the situation causing a few of the men surrounding him to back up. He wiped a finger under his eye as he caught his breath, only chuckling an extra few times, the gun in his hand waving around rather aimlessly. “That’s one of the best things I’ve heard all day, thanks for keeping it interesting.” 

Marodellus watched Jack with an unimpressed expression, his neck length silver hair being brushed back behind his ear with a quick swipe of the hand. “Would you like to know what happened with Rhys now, or would you rather laugh it off again?” 

“Oh, yes, please, tell me. Then, once he’s fixed, I’ll be on my way. I’m good for my word now, trust me.” Jack put on his best cheesy smile, his hand going over his chest.

Marodellus licked his lips and nodded towards the man closest to Rhys, the man leaning down to jam an ATLAS ID card into Rhys’s cybernetic port. Jack watched Rhys flinch awake, his ECHO being a dark, glowing red as he simply stared at the ground with his mouth hanging slightly open. 

“Hey, hey, hey, what the hell is this?” Jack took a few steps forward, a gun being shoved into his chest to stop him from getting any closer to Marodellus, “You said you don’t hurt innocents yet here you are hurting one. Last I checked, Rhys didn’t do shit to your pathetic little corporation. You wanted me. I’m here. Let. Rhys. Go, and do as you want to me. Torture me, kill me, mutilate me - whatever.”

“When we found out you were dead the first time, Pandora breathed a sigh of relief. Thank the heavens that Handsome Jack was gone and things could continue as they usually did without disturbance.” Marodellus started, ignoring the brief pleading that Jack offered, “Then, people were talking about how a Hyperion man had Handsome Jack programmed into his head and was able to communicate with him, and next thing we know, you’re in a body again. And, you’re the CEO of that damn shit show in the sky.” Marodellus narrowed his eyes, a button being handed to him. “We thought that this was our opportunity to end you once and for all. We took that man that had become so precious and important to you and implemented a virus.” 

Marodellus looked down at Rhys and clicked the button, Rhys’s bionic arm lifting as shockwaves seemed to course through his body. It took 4 men to hold Jack back, and Marodellus was quick to release the button. Rhys collapsed again and slumped further into himself, consciousness hitting him slowly but surely as he began to breathe heavier, lips moving in an attempt to speak, the fingers on his human hand twitched briefly. “This virus was one that we controlled from all the way down here, furthest away from you. We were able to hack into Rhys’s memories and subsystems, examine the ones that he cherished, the ones that he never wanted to forget. Quite a sap you can be, Jack. Touching, honestly. I never thought I’d see the day where Jack would be so… sweet to someone.” Marodellus clicked a different button on the remote, this time Rhys seemed to jolt forward, his bionic hand clenching tightly.

Jack went to yell again, but he stopped when he heard what Rhys began to say. “That night when you told me you loved me, that you loved my eyes, the fact that I make things so overdramatic, the way you said you loved that you could hold me and kiss me and that you were the lucky one to have me, not the other way around-”

“Hey! Those are private!” Jack snarled, his gun being smacked out of his hand as he went to point it at Marodellus. “Stop doing this to him, dammit! I’m here, you douchebag! That’s what you wanted!”

Marodellus tsked and flipped a different switch on, Rhys’s eye changing from a deep red to a light purple, the virus in him forcing him to talk. “When I came home early and saw you without your mask on and you told me that everyone would take a look at you and see a monster but I didn’t, I could never see a monster in someone that I-”

_ Click _ .

Jack was starting to lose his cool. The cocky demeanor was fading, it was being replaced with panic, with worry. Rhys flinched, his arm tensing and retracting before falling limp, eye a bright yellow. “Why the hell are you doing this to him?!” Jack shouted, his elbow connecting with the man's jaw closest to him.

“When you told me about your daughter, the pain you felt when you lost her, how every night you think of her and you try to think of ways to fix what you broke, how you wanted nothing more than a second chance at being her father so you could hear those three little words any parent wants to hear from their own flesh and blood, how you wished that things were different so that she was the one alive and you were the one dead-”

“Stop!” Jack shouted. He was breaking with each memory, he could feel himself slipping, losing control of himself. He slammed fists into heads from the men keeping him stuck in place, trying his damndest to get over to Rhys or at least the button.

_ Click.  _

Rhys groaned in pain, his eyes moving around in his skull without control, a deep green taking over his eye, confusion darting into his facial features.

“Because, what better way to break the man then to bring up private memories?” Marodellus explained, his eyes glancing at the spazzing man sitting beneath him.

“You told me that when you were with your old team you thought that you had everything under control, everything in an organized plan, everything was good but when they betrayed you you found it so hard to trust again. You swore to yourself that you wouldn’t trust yourself with anyone again, how it was all about you protecting yourself, but you told me that you trusted me, you cared about me so deeply that you were willing to give yourself over to me completely-” Rhys’s voice was getting more bated in breaths, his eye not able to find a color to land on anymore, body randomly wracking with tremors. 

“You said you don’t hurt innocents! You’re a bunch of fucking liars!” Jack’s voice cracked, the thickness in his throat making it harder to speak. He was losing the strength in his body the more Rhys spoke - all he wanted to do was stop the pain that Rhys felt and there was nothing he could do for the brunette.

_ Click. _

“People you looked up to used to beat you for some reason you never figured out and you tried so hard to make the world a better place, but you were misunderstood-” Sweat was beading at Rhys’s brow, words becoming hard to speak but he was forced to continue.

Jack’s jaw was clenched tight, his breathing getting quicker, the struggling only increasing despite the strength he was losing. “Goddammit, knock it off! Rhys didn’t do shit to you people, it was all me! Torture me, not him!”

_ Click. _

“You promised me to not do this, to not be that ruler again, to not kill or maim or hurt anyone, you promised me to stay sane, to stay the Jack that I loved and you did it, you changed for  _ me _ and-” Rhys was flinching and shaking his head with every click of the damned button, his chest heaving without a break in sight.

“You wanted me, you jackasses! I’m  **_here!_ ** Stop hurting Rhys!” Jack was attempting to plead, to get the heat off his lover, to turn the attention and pain that was being inflicted on Rhys to him. He couldn’t watch this anymore. 

_ Click. _

“You told me that each moment you spent with me was like a silver lining, like you were getting a break that you so desperately sought for after so many years of vicious intent, how everyday with me was like a vacation, how-” Rhys groaned in pain, his flesh hand going to dig deep into his hair to grip. Jack only just saw the tears that were streaming down Rhys’s face, leaving watery trails, the droplets staining dark pools on his shirt. 

Jack inhaled sharply, shaking his body, trying to break through the four men holding him back so that he could get over to Rhys. His knees kicked at groins and his hands ripped weapons from weak opposers, but he was quickly barricaded from Rhys once again with more people pressed into him. That was all that mattered to him - freeing Rhys from the pain that he was being forced to feel. 

_ Click. _

A pained intake of breath, “I know that you’re better than what people assume about you, Jack, I know you are, I know you. I listened to you tell me about your life, your feelings, the way you felt when you lost your daughter, how you felt when the people you considered friends betrayed you - I know you and I know you’re not as people assume! I know you’re not! Because I didn’t fall for some dick who can’t pull their head out of their own ass!” Rhys’s voice was getting more strained, more choked. 

“Stop! Dammit, stop it! Rhys!” Jack could feel himself crumbling, unfamiliar heat pooling in his eyes, the stinging of tears obscuring his vision. “Rhys, Rhysie, come on, baby! Pull yourself out of this!”

“There’s only one last thing I wanted you to hear, Jack.” Marodellus cooed, the smile on his lips showing how much he was enjoying the show that was Jack mentally breaking. 

_ Click. _

The same blue finally returned with a slow transition, dazed eyes blinking furiously, sending tears flowing down pale cheeks. A newfound silence settled around them, “I fell for Handsome Jack and there’s nothing about him I would change, not even for a moment.” 

Within the next moment, Jack hissed in pain, the echoing shot through the lobby causing him to wonder what exactly had happened. The pain that was there was gone in an instant, hot tears being forced to slip down his cheeks as he blinked. Warm liquid began to make his shirt heavy, and he turned his head down, seeing his shirt turning a dark crimson in a matter of seconds. He had stopped struggling the moment the shot was fired, but his eyes remained trained on Rhys, their gazes connecting. Jack half smiled, the pain rushing to meet him a moment later in a flurry of intense burning and stinging. 

The men that were holding him back from lunging towards Rhys finally took a step back, letting Jack fall to his knees with his hands pressing into the bullet wound. As soon as he hit the ground, the panicked gasp from Rhys caught his attention. There was no one to stop Rhys from scrambling to his feet as he sprinted the few yards to Jack’s side, his eyes wide as he began to scan repeatedly for the injury. 

“No, no, no, no,” Rhys repeated, his hands going to press hard over Jack’s, his furious blinking still sending droplets of water down his cheeks. His eye shone brightly, the scanning process amplified by the silence in the lobby. “This d-damn thing is faulty, it’s telling me the wrong information, you’re going to be fine.” Rhys tried to reassure, the panic in his voice showing in his actions and facial expression. “Come on, Handsome, stay with me, okay? You’re going to be fine and we’ll get you back-”

Jack grabbed Rhys’s hand, pulling it away from the wound that continued to profusely bleed. “This is one shitty flashback to the past, not gonna lie.” Jack chuckled and winced in pain. He breathed in deeply, trying to keep his mental consciousness there as long as he could. “Listen, pumpkin. You know as well as I do that this isn’t going to work.” Jack said, his brain barely registering that the throngs of people barricading them were beginning to disperse. The damage was done. There was no reason for them to stick around any longer. 

“No, don’t say s-stupid things like that, Jack.” Rhys said, pulling his hand back so that he could continue the task at hand. The tears obscured his vision but he never stopped applying pressure - it was the only thing he could do. “You’ll be fine, let’s just hurry up and get back to Hyperion, then we can patch you up and you’ll be g-good as new.” Rhys was trying so hard to be positive, to show Jack that he was going to be alright, but he could tell that Jack didn’t believe him for a second. His brunette locks were beginning to lose their support and fall into his face, his vision getting more obstructed.

“Rhys… just let me give you one last little thing before I go.” Jack whispered, his eyes struggling to stay open the more blood he lost. This feeling was one of the worst. “Everything I told you about myself, everything about my past, my… stupid feelings - I would never take back. The one person I could trust…” Jack chuckled once more, his hand going to press into Rhys’s cheek. The blood that smeared there wasn’t his biggest concern. “You changed me for the ‘good’ of the world despite my own ambitions and I never thanked you for it. So… thank you. Thank you for attempting to make me a better person, but I already pissed off way too many people to actually make it any farther than this. I enjoyed being good for a while though.” 

“Don’t say these things, you’re not going anywhere, I’m going to get you fixed up, we’re going to go home and we’re going to look into a-adopting a girl and name her Angel - it’ll be okay, see?” Rhys offered, his voice shaking, arms having trouble staying still themselves. 

“I always loved the way you would make any problem seem a little easier to bear,” Jack smiled, his hand moving to Rhys’s neck as he pulled his head in closer. The kiss was so warm, the taste of salt on Rhys’s lips making itself known as they moved their lips in sync, the passion spreading through Jack’s body. He felt the lithe arms of his lover wrap around his neck, now seeming to accept that help was not going to be an option in this situation. They only parted briefly, Jack moving to kiss Rhys’s tears, “I’m sorry that I can’t be there for everything, but you better know that I love you more than words can express. Keep that in mind for me, will you?” Jack’s voice was getting quieter, his body heavier. He began to lean against Rhys, though he tried his hardest to stay awake. 

“O-of course, Handsome Jack, of course.” Rhys stuttered, the shaking of his voice making Jack’s heart clench. “Never forget that I love you - all of you, even the shitty parts that make you hard to love. There’s nothing better that I could find then what I’ve found in you.” Rhys whispered, his arms moving from Jack’s neck to his torso to hold him up. There was one last final, quiet laugh from Jack as his eyes shut, and as soon as Jack’s full weight was pressed against him, Rhys began to weep. 

Rhys could feel the overwhelming pain spreading over his body. It was like he was on fire, holding the man he loved so dearly in his arms, the heavy, cold feeling overtaking Jack’s body all too quickly. It was all so surreal. One minute they were signing adoption papers and the next, he was being thrown into a world of no memories; then back to remembering things about Jack that he had the privilege of hearing; then to cradling his lover's lifeless body in his arms. Those deep seated feelings and thoughts that Jack never spoke of, the ones he put on the back burner were things that only Rhys was allowed to hear, and he cherished those tender moments between them. 

Everyone else saw Handsome Jack as a monster, and in some cases he was, but the past three years of having a body back, of being in control of Hyperion with Rhys by his side, he hadn’t killed a single soul. He changed for Rhys’s sake, and Rhys was lost on words as to why these other companies couldn’t understand that Jack had changed. His past may have been dark and twisted, but he was focused on being… normal. All for the sake of one person.

Just as they were getting to that point of normalcy, they lost it, and it completely destroyed Rhys. He wasn’t going to find another Handsome Jack to love, and that made the burn in his body scorch harder, feeling like he was roasting on an open flame. What he wouldn’t give to go back to before this virus took root in his cybernetics. Rhys was aware that Jack’s death was mainly his fault whether others would believe it or not. Jack may have caused these people to hate him, but Rhys gave them the ammo to kill him.

He must’ve been sitting there for hours, but the man who ran ATLAS didn’t move from his spot. The only time he did was when he followed Rhys out of the facility after Rhys ordered Loader Bot to come down from Hyperion and carry Jack’s body to the car. 

Rhys’s eyes were puffy and stung as if there were needles in his eyes, the redness was sure to be apparent, but he wasn’t about to stop there. He had to do something to avenge Jack in some way. That man had given him so much ever since they first met, even going so far as to help in some of the most crucial moments when he really didn’t have to. The only thing that sprung to his mind was to take over as CEO and… destroy ATLAS and DAHL for what they did. 

Marodellus went to speak to Rhys, but Rhys glared hard at him. “I want that virus removed from my cybernetics now.” Rhys flatly spoke, the anger towards these two companies rising. They had just murdered one of the only people that he found himself so deeply in love with. They may have gotten rid of Jack, but they didn’t realize that he had always wanted to be Handsome Jack. 

“It’s already removed. We did as we wanted to. I know that Hyperion will keep to itself now that Jack is gone.” Marodellus explained easily, the genuinity in his voice showing that he was being honest. 

Rhys scoffed and jabbed his bionic finger into Marodellus’s chest, “You look forward to Hyperion keeping to itself. For now.” Rhys added the last part as he climbed into the car, not wasting a moment to head back to the pickup point for Hyperion vehicles. Rhys would have to see if he could find another AI version of Jack to reanimate again, or at least find Nakayama’s drive again. Even if things weren’t the same, perhaps he could simply bring him back so he could still hear his voice. Either way, Rhys wasn’t going to be the same after this, and he didn’t plan on staying the same. 


End file.
